Watchmen. Dune. Lord of the Rings. There have always been stories that are so fundamentally intertwined with the original medium they were told in that even trying to adapt them into film has been recognized as a Sisyphean task, earning them the moniker of “unfilmable.” Countless works have at one point in time been given the cursed title, with many of them inevitably arriving on the silver screen with the advent of new technology and passionate filmmakers with a hunger to plant their flag on uncharted territory.
And yet, after four decades and countless attempts, one beloved cult novel still remains frozen at the peak of a mountain of unadaptable stories, still untouched by those brave enough to try: Neuromancer. William Gibson’s 1984 sci-fi noir was the spark that erupted the cyberpunk explosion, and countless films owe a debt to the world he created, notably including The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell. However, there’s one film in particular that is such a potent dose of the same techno-existentialist anarchy that runs through Neuromancer’s veins that it might as well be considered a loose adaptation.
